Jonathan Weber (Gründer von http://www.newwest.net/) schreibt in der Times:

Back in the early 1990s, when I was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, Bill Gates came to the paper for an "editorial board" meeting, a weird combination of meet-and-greet and press Q&A in which company brass schmoozed the mogul while lowly reporters and editors were supposed to ask him tough questions.

Even then, newspapers were worried about what new technologies would mean for their business, and Gates was hardly re-assuring. In a comment that has always stuck with me, Gates observed that newspapers delivered a bundle of things – national, international and local news, brand advertising, classified advertising, event listings – that didn't logically belong together as a bundle. Why would people turn to the same source for both Iraq war dispatches and used cars?

The answer, historically, was that newspapers alone had the distribution apparatus – trucks and printing presses – to get both of those things to the masses. But Gates was right: the internet, by changing the distribution equation, would bring about the unbundling of those various services, and that would mean trouble for newspapers.

Mehr: The Times online - Newspapers grapple with an unbundled world [ Via poynter.org ]

Aus dem Nieman Reports - Spring 2006 Issue: Journalist's Trade - Newspapers' Survival: Lessons From a Newsroom's Digital Frontline: In Roanoke, Virginia, a midsized newspaper has had "the freedom to run some experiments, fail, try again, and along the way discover some meaningful success." Michael Riley schreibt:

A stack of studies sits on my desk, all of them lamenting circulation declines, the absence of young readers, the aging of loyal readers, the corporate squeeze for ever-higher profits, and the intense competition for readers' time as the Internet rapidly reshapes our world. The story is all too familiar -- it's the end of the world as we know it, and that's enough to make any ink-stained curmudgeon cry.
Yet I'd argue that digital technology and the Internet might offer the best reason to put the cap back on the Prozac.

It's counterintuitive, but the future of what we do is not as scary as it seems. Newspapers -- or, more precisely, newsgathering operations -- are in a position of strength: In most markets, they are the last remaining mass-medium; they are prime creators of original journalism and, in many cases, they are deeply committed to a community's civic life and welfare. Finally, they are blessed with a profitable business model that can, if allowed, underwrite a range of digital experiments and online forays to move us successfully into the future.

Vollständier Text: Nieman Reports - Spring 2006 Issue: Journalist's Trade - Newspapers' Survival: Lessons From a Newsroom's Digital Frontline

Via: http://www.cyberjournalist.net/

Joe R. Howry bringt es auf den Punkt:

It has taken me a while to really understand this dynamic. Even now, I will, on occasion, become defensive and argumentative with people. I hate when I do that. I have to keep reminding myself that I need to be a better listener. When I am a good listener, what ensues is a meaningful conversation from which I invariably learn a great deal.

It is critical for all of us at The Star to become better listeners. It is more than a simple courtesy because our readers have taken valuable time to talk to us. That is important, but I have become convinced that our future success depends on our ability to forge a new kind of relationship with our readers.

I think most people, excluding far too many journalists, would agree that the model of the all-knowing, all-seeing media dispensing information as if it came directly from the heavens has about as much traction today as bald tires on ice. Through our own missteps and encouraged by others with their own agendas, the media, including newspapers, are no longer trusted. In those ubiquitous polls that gauge public trust, journalists find themselves competing for the bottom rung with politicians, used-car salesmen and lawyers.

We got to this position through our own ignorance, arrogance and stubbornness. We failed to see that our audiences were demanding more and better from us. We were arrogant in thinking that our audiences would not see us as anything less than noble, and we have been absolutely pigheaded in our willingness to do anything about it.

But, as they say, the times are a changin'. At newspapers across the country, there are fledgling efforts to re-engage with readers. Many newspapers have launched citizen journalism programs in which readers are invited to contribute content. Much of the content that is being solicited is the kind newspapers struggle to get or simply ignore. ( ...)

Denn vollständigen Text gibts beim Ventura Country Star zu lesen: Becoming a better listener - Efforts at citizen participation help media grow

[Via Ventura Country Star ]

Citizenbay is a city centered citizen journalism project that will pay users whose contributions are voted the ten best by readers each day in 60 cities around the US and France.

...und sollte diesen Monat noch starten. Mal sehen, was daraus wird ;-))

[Via: Techcrunch ]

Ein wirklich brillantes Video von Peter Hirshberg von Technorati und Michel Markman.

[Via The long Tail ]

"Journalism is not in a period of maximal self-confidence right now, and the Internet’s cheerleaders are practically laboratory specimens of maximal self-confidence. They have got the rhetorical upper hand; traditional journalists answering their challenges often sound either clueless or cowed and apologetic. As of now, though, there is not much relation between claims for the possibilities inherent in journalist-free journalism and what the people engaged in that pursuit are actually producing. As journalism moves to the Internet, the main project ought to be moving reporters there, not stripping them away."

Aus: The New Yorker: NICHOLAS LEMANN - The Amateur Hour

"Dies zeigt die unerträgliche Arroganz mancher Journalisten gegenüber ihren Lesern. Die Wahrheit ist: Bislang bestimmten ganz allein Journalisten den Inhalt von Zeitungen und Zeitschriften. Das ist jetzt vorbei: Jetzt machen Leser als Leser-Reporter und Bürger-Journalisten mit! Der Leser-Reporter bringt den Journalismus nicht in Misskredit, sondern ist eine fundamentale Erweiterung journalistischer Arbeit.

In Zukunft wird diese Arbeit der Leser-Reporter immer wichtiger. Ganz einfach deshalb, weil die Amateurfotografen – insbesondere bei unvorhergesehenen Ereignissen – als Augenzeugen dort längst zur Stelle sind, wo Profis in der Regel erst hinreisen müssen."

"BILD"-Chefredakteur Kai Diekmann auf die Kritik des DJV-Bundesvorsitzenden Michael Konken zur Einführung eines "Bild-Volks-Presseausweises".

Mehr dazu gibts beim netzjournalisten.
Und bei BILD direkt:Wir sind BILD-Leser-Reporter

[Via: netzjournalist und netzeitung ]

Made by infamy:



Danke Jungs!


[Via: http://infam.antville.org/stories/1464082/ ]

Douglas J. Fisher von der University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications hat zusammen mit Graham Osteen, editor and publisher des The Hartsville Messenger haben einen äusserst interessanten Bericht veröffentlicht:

Hartsville Today
The first year of a small-town citizen-journalism site
A guide especially for small daily and non-daily newspapers (pdf, 75 Seiten)

Sehr, sehr empfehlenswert, da aus der Praxis !! ;-)

[Via PJNet.org ]

http://www.citizenjournalismawards.com/index.php

The Nokia Citizen Journalism Awards are a celebration of the very best in citizen journalism in the UK over the last 12 months. The role of the citizen journalist or witness contributor has become increasingly important in the last year with many news reports taking their lead from submissions from the general public.

Run and controlled by Press Gazette, the magazine dedicated to UK journalism that brings you the British Press Awards and Regional Press Awards, the inaugural Nokia Citizen Journalism Awards 2006 are an opportunity to acknowledge just some of the excellent picture and video footage that has been published for the first time in the UK and Ireland.

Judged by a recognised and distinguished panel, and overseen by Press Gazette editor Ian Reeves, these awards run for the next two months and are designed to give the eventual winners the acclaim they deserve.

....und dazu gibts gleich auch noch das Vademecum mit Infos zu Citizen Journalism - sehr, sehr empfehlenswert:


Den Reporters Guide als pdf-download:

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/resources/pdfs/reportersguide_citizenjournalism.pdf